Rain Forest Frog Farm

 Symbols of the tropical rain forest, untiring nocturnal recital choir deliverers, bizarrely multicolored (like the red eye tree frog) and some poisonous (like the strawberry poisson dart frog) but with a very sensitive skin, the rain forest frogs at our conservationist frog farm can surely lead you to witness the extraordinary variations in colors, shapes and habits that a frog can have, besides life aspects and remarkable facts to learn about, making your Costa Rica vacation naturally astounding!

Rain Forest Frog Farm
Location: Arenal Volcano, Costa Rica. Hotel Los Lagos
Schedule: 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.
Includes: Frog farm information & explanation with facts about rain forest frogs.
Recommendations: Camera with good optical zoom.
Price: Access is included with your hotel reservation or hotel entrance fee.
*Because of very sensitive frog skin, avoid contact or please keep in mind that you must have your skin hands very clean (no lotions, creams or repellents) in order to touch a frog without risk its life.

Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates pumilio). Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates pumilio). Strawberry Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates pumilio). Red Eye Tree Frog couple (Agalychnis callidryas). Green & Black Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates auratus). Masked Tree Frog (Smilisca phaeota). Red Eye Tree Frog resting (Agalychnis callidryas). Masked Tree Frog (Smilisca phaeota). Red Eye Tree Frog in plenum activity (Agalychnis callidryas). Masked Tree Frog (Smilisca phaeota). Green & Black Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates auratus). Masked Tree Frog (Smilisca phaeota).

 Rain forest frogs of some families have evolved specialized body shapes to fit into the narrow spaces among the bromeliad leaves, which stores water at its bases and provides this way the ideal wet cradle for the eggs an then the tadpoles (the first stages of frog metamorphosis prior to adulthood); and in some cases, the tadpoles are carried from ponds to bromeliad water tanks clinging on the frog back!. These cares are needed to avoid as much as possible the predatory effect (from fishes, damselflies nymphs and other aquatic insects) over the most inoffensive creature in the rain forest: the frog tadpole. In the case of the poison dart frog, evolution has created colorful patterns, as you can see in the famous Strawberry Poison Dart Frog, called aposematic coloration, that play the function of being a very conspicuous warning signal of bad taste or being a dangerous (even deadly) meal, in order to avoid this way to be devoured by the myriad of potential predators. Rain forest frogs feed mostly on insects and worms, catching them with their sticky, forked tongue, attached at the front of the lower jaw.

 Poison dart frog (also poison arrow frog) is the combined common name of four main families of small, diurnal rain forest frogs: Dendrobates, Epipedobates, Minyobates and Phyllobates. These frogs are named poison or dart arrow frogs because the widespread notion that all poison frogs are used by South American tribes in the manufacture of poison that is spread on arrows or blow-gun darts.

 Great scientific interest to biology has created the Poison dart frog because of the discovery that the poison dart frog obtain the toxic chemicals they defend themselves with, from alkaloid-rich ants and other rain forest insects, which they have evolutionary relationship. Even scientists have recently found that some poison dart frogs not only absorb the alkaloids of ants, but even have the ability to modify them, creating more toxic variants. The poison dart frog's fascinating ability to resist, store, and manipulate toxins, along with its related role in the rain forest food chain, are among the most important discoveries in the study of food chain evolution.

 The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog or blue jeans poison dart frog, Dendrobates pumilio (Oophaga pumilio as recently named), is a type of poison dart frog found in Central America, with a high concentration within Costa Rica Tropical rain forest. As a good example of aposematic coloration, the Strawberry Poison Dart Frog have conspicuous colors as a warning and indicative of toxins existence in its skin (giving the frog a bad taste) working as antipredator adaptation. The Strawberry Poison Dart Frog and related frogs are notable in the amphibian world for exhibiting a high degree of parental care.

 A tree frog has large adhesive toepads, and one of their most known representative, the Red Eye Tree Frog (Agalychnis callidryas) is an arboreal frog native to the Neotropical rain forest. The Red Eye Tree Frog is a small-sized tree frog, reaching lengths of 9.5 millimeters. Its dorsal surface is green of varying shades, and its ventral surface is white. The sides of the frog are purple or blue, with distinctive vertical white stripes and orange toes. Both, females and males, have bulging red eyes with vertically narrowed pupils resemble the eyes of domestic cats. The Red Eye Tree Frog have soft, fragile skin on their belly, and the skin on their back is thicker and rougher, are not poisonous and rely on camouflage to protect them. During the day, the Red Eye Tree Frog remains motionless, cover their blue sides with their back legs, tuck their bright feet under their belly, and shut their red eyes. They thus appear almost completely green, and well hidden among the foliage, but it recovers all its astounding and bizarre coloring once at full activity. Their eyes seem to glow in the dark. Red Eye Tree Frog lives about three to five years in the wild.

Don't forget that after an intense and active tour day you can enjoy relax in the natural hot springs hotel facilities and get relax, health and beauty at our Fangus Spa Resort.